PTAB Order on Patent Review Factors Declared Precedential (1)

A Patent and Trademark Office tribunal designated as precedential a recent order on Apple Inc.'s challenge of a mobile wallet patent, laying out factors it considers in deciding whether to grant a validity trial when there’s a related federal lawsuit.

The designation further clarifies the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s thinking on whether to institute an inter partes review of a patent’s validity and how it will conduct such proceedings.

Fintiv, whose 8,843,125 patent was challenged, argued that the PTAB should pass on instituting review because the same validity issues were raised in a related district court case that had...